Door skins

[unfrozen1969]

Question:

I am at the stage of purchasing doors skins for my convertible, and would like to have them reskinned before moving on to the floor, etc.

I ahve been looking at CJ Pony Parts, and the skins appear to be good. Does anyone else know of a good place to look. I have to consider the cost of shipping to Canada.

Are there different grads of steel, or are they all mass produced. It is my understanding that the original skin was glued, is removal difficult and do most people weld the new skins on versus regluing?

Bill

[MikeStang]

It seems to me all the skins are pretty much the same.
Normally the panels are not glued, just crimped, and yes you can weld them if you like, its all a matter of personal prefrance....I just bought 2 new door shells because I want no RUST and figured it would same me lots of time LOL...Anyhow long story short, Im going to have to tack weld one of my skins on a NEW door....When you lift on the back of the door you can see the skin Move ever so slightly, and this my friend coupled with moisture is what causes Electrolic Action which we all know makes RUST.
Skins are easy to remove, you can wither get a pair of Door skin removal Pliers from Harbor Freight...SUPER CHEEP but they will get the job done, or you can just grind the outer edge of the skins down till you get through and chip them off lol....I like to use a combination of both the afore mentioned items....Anyhow, going back on with them is a whole seperate matter LOL
Can be done just fine with a hammer and dolly and some help if you know what your doing, or there is a tool made for reinstalling them...I prefer the first method, I have an overabundance of beer drinking friends who come drink my beer so I puts them to work helping out :P
Sorry for the long post....
Oh I have seen skins from 3 different places and the metal seems the same thickness no matter where you get it.
I like to use John's Mustangs in Houston TX, his guys are super friendly, and take good care when packing their items, and he will match anyones prices :P
Mike

[flight96]

Hey Bill,
I used the door skins from crosscanadaparts.com (http://ecat.crosscanadaparts.com/php2/cross/base/welcome.php). I used their quarter panel skins as well. All fit pretty good. I tack welded my skins after folding them. It is very easy to do. I know they have locations in Windsor and Toronto in Ontario.
There is also The Mustang Shop. (Click HERE (http://www.themustangshop.ca/catalog/300001)) Really good guys, but their in Calgary. I bought a lot of parts off of them. Their very helpful.

Good Luck
B&DIMH

[unfrozen1969]

Thanks guys,

I will try to post my progress with photos when I get to that stage. I am off to the Olympics for three weeks, Go Canada Go...

Bill

[flight96]

Have fun Bill. No snow here so ya get away from that !!
Are you gonna be staying on the cruise ship in the harbour ?(AKA the screw canoe). My brother-In-Law is staying on it. He's doing security as well. He's a Vic PD officer.

Be safe !!!

[69 redone]

pictures of damage to my door and replacement door skins from npd , pretty good fit , and the body shop didnt moan about them so must be ok.

[TaylorMadeStang]

Door skins are on my to do list as well, actually i think im goin to go for complete new doors, gona have to have new internals too. My old delux door panels are looking their age so might have them replaced, starting to think my mustang ll upgrade is gona be cheaper than this project.

Anyone know of a place to pick up some good used 69 door shells, other than just surfin ebay?

[428scj]

Hey Bill Im one hour north of Toronto and have a set I paid $300 for.They are Dynacorn ones.The same as cj pony and ndp.

[unfrozen1969]

How come you are not using them? Do you have an parts code numbers. I am interested if they in good condition. I can be in your area next week.

Bill

[unfrozen1969]

I have been practicing taking the door skins off of the spare doors that I have. The doors were in really rough shape, and as a result, I was grinding through a lot of bondo. What I noticed is that I had to really go slow, so that the grinder would not catch an edge and cut into the under structure of the door. If I angled my grinder, almost parallel with the door skin, I was actually removing more of the metal from the skin until I revealed the seam, and the skin started to lift from the door. There are a few challenges with the curves near the door handle. All in all it went well, I will try to remove the skin from my good doors soon.
Anyways, I was able to salvage the glass and innerds of teh door mechanisms from my donor doors, so that is good.

I am currently paring out my coupe, and it is one big rust bucket, but I am salvaging lots of parts.

Question: are the rear side windows on a coupe the same for a convertible

Bill:hammer:

[RPM]

instead of a grinder, try using a spot weld remover bit on a drill motor. much less chance for more damage.

[unfrozen1969]

Thanks, I will look into that..

[unfrozen1969]

When you get a chance, can you post a picture of the spot weld remover bit, I went to princess auto and could not locate one, there were a few options, but if I have an idea of what it looks like, I can buy one.

Thanks,

Bill

[Legion]

Bill,

There's a couple of different styles, but here are two I've used. The first bit works best in my opinion, but they don't last as long as the second bit. I'm sure it comes down to personal preference. I pick the first style up at Harbor Freight for $5 bucks I believe. The cutter unscrews from the shaft and can be turned over and put back on (teeth on both sides). It also has a screw in one end of the shaft that controls the pressure of the spring loaded center point.

67456746

[RPM]

I've only used the style of the first pic, and it worked very well.

[unfrozen1969]

I have not located the bit for sale yet. Did you guys weld your glue your door skins?

[BuckeyeDemon]

are you just trying to remove the remaining spot welds that attached the skin to the frame?

if so, then grind. they will be very easy to spot once you cut the skin off.

[flight96]

I welded mine. I thought about glue but welding is 2nd nature for me.

[unfrozen1969]

I had a few donor doors to practice on, and there was a lot of bondo involved when I was grinding. The doors from my project car are in much better shape than the ones that I have been practicing on. I have one donor door left to practice on before I work on the real thing. Grinding was okay, except when I got near the door handle area and the curve in teh door, and that is where the grinder often bit in and dug into the frame of the door. It was not too drastic, and I am sure that the new door skin would cover any cuts.

Did you guys prep the interior metal of your door and skins with any primer or rust inhibitor before putting in your glass? If so what did you use?

I would like to weld my doors, but I am not that strong at welding and may have to go to a body shop to have them done. Gluing is an option, but just does not seem as permanent, even though I have seen TV shows where they have glued front fenders, roof skins etc, so I really don't know at the moment.

Bill

[Mike65]

I was thinking on doing the door skins for my Coupe but on further inspection they are both badly rotted all the way thru the main door structure. So it looks like a couple of new door shells are on my to do list after I am done fixing quater panel rot.

[70mstang]

I just found out that one of my repop door shells is too short and too slim to actually work on the car. Since I bought them over a year ago Mustangs Unlimited will not take it back. They were repop doors with Made in Korea stickers on them. When you get the repops I'd say measure every dimension of the door, including the lip that the window felt screws into (that was too slim as well) to be certain the door will come close to fitting. So I'm going to take a shot at saving my original. It was pretty bad but it might be salvagable.

[unfrozen1969]

Nice to know, I bought mine from National Parts Depot in Ocala, FL. I have thought about buying a complete new door, but mine have the speaker cut outs which is suppose to be rare.

I will take a look at my skins to see how they measure up, thanks for letting me know.

Bill